tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post113836860465869360..comments2023-10-11T10:40:48.712-04:00Comments on The Miserable Annals of the Earth: Everything under the sunDoc Nebulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138541154233324862006-01-29T08:25:00.000-05:002006-01-29T08:25:00.000-05:00I should also note that in addition to his comment...I should also note that in addition to his comment, S.M. Stirling also sent me a private email of support and an offer of any help he could provide in my current condition of troll-itis. And I appreciate that greatly, as well. I suspect keeping comment moderation up will cure this particular strain of the virus; trolls thrive on attention, and this troll is a particularly loveless, twisted, churlish, desperately needy variant of even that generally loveless, twisted, churlish, desperately needy ilk. So when his stuff stops appearing, even momentarily prior to me deleting it, he'll dry up and blow away. <BR/><BR/>In the meantime, all my more reasonable and civil commenters will have to put up with a delay before their stuff shows up in the thread, and I deeply regret that, but a blogger's gotta do what a blogger's gotta do.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138540909984204192006-01-29T08:21:00.000-05:002006-01-29T08:21:00.000-05:00One of the things I fail to note when I post here,...One of the things I fail to note when I post here, far too consistently, is that this blog is a place where I vent, among other things. That being the case, my tone towards George R.R. Martin has probably been more disrespectful than it should be, as he is in the process of creating something that, should it ever be finished, will stand as one of the finest works of sword & sorcery fantasy that has ever been done.<BR/><BR/>It's just that, right now, looking down the line at a probable decade before I can reasonably hope to see how things, not resolve, but simply continue from this current point, for characters I am desperately interested in, well, I get frustrated. The frustration comes through, but I should point out more often than I do that the 'desperately interested' bit is due to Martin's absolute brilliance as a writer and a world creator.<BR/><BR/>Still, as a writer myself, and one who has studied the craft intently and I hope insightfully for more than twenty years now, I can see that much of the frustration that Westeros fan are currently experiencing is unnecessary. Martin is obviously enthusiastic about his project, and that shows, but he badly badly needs to focus. <BR/><BR/>Now, if, thirty years from now, when the final book is finally finished, it eventuates that every single apparently wandering plot thread and inexplicable story element and amazingly cool character has, in fact, been essential to the ultimate resolution of this vast and epic saga, then, well... I don't know... I guess that would be okay (or even great) for future generations who can buy the whole series in one gigantic beautifully cased set and then either read it at their leisure over the course of their childhood, adolescence, and adulthood into early middle age, or just launch it into space towards some threatening alien globe where it will fall like a planet killing meteor and smash that world's burgeoning invasion fleet to flinders. <BR/><BR/>However, I will still have spent the previous thirty years gulping antacids and becoming steadily more grey and twitchy as I wait to finally find out what the fuck happened to Bran and Coldhands and Jon Snow and Tyrion, goddamit. <BR/><BR/>And, alas, that tormented exasperation will have, more often than not, colored my posts about the various installments of the series I have devoured wolfishly as they have dribbled niggardly out to the audience over the decades.<BR/><BR/>Having gone on and on, one more comment -- I understand loving your own prose; I love mine, and have a great deal of trouble editing myself. But when it's been necessary, I've learned to be ruthless. Mr. Martin is a far far better writer than I am, and somewhat more experienced at being a professional author than I am (that's irony; he's actually VASTLY more experienced) and he should have long since mastered this difficult art as well. <BR/><BR/>He does write beautifully, especially about Westeros, and I'd have a very difficult time cutting anything he's written out... it would seem nearly blasphemous. But if he can't do it, his editor should be.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138508650116713692006-01-28T23:24:00.000-05:002006-01-28T23:24:00.000-05:00Well, George is a friend of mine and I sort of wat...Well, George is a friend of mine and I sort of watched this saga firsthand...<BR/><BR/>Yeah, George had a lot of trouble with this one. I can assure you the publisher didn't wait "silently", though... 8-).<BR/><BR/>George is a genius and he works very hard. But he's a very instinctive writer. <BR/><BR/>The reason he has trouble cutting is that it's not a matter of cutting bad stuff; everything is great. It's just that there's too much there -- he's got this huge world in his head, nearly as detailed as the real one, and it wants to get out. <BR/><BR/>He loves what he does and that makes it (as I can attest from personal experience)hard to take anything out.<BR/><BR/>It won't take him five years to do the next one, though!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138490202142327282006-01-28T18:16:00.000-05:002006-01-28T18:16:00.000-05:00Scott,I don't know who it is. Someone who is appa...Scott,<BR/><BR/>I don't know who it is. Someone who is apparently so obsessed with me that they're willing to waste a great deal of their finite lifespan posting nonsense few people would read even if I left it up, and who is, in addition, too gutless to sign any kind of name to their blind, obsessive hostility. Fuck 'em. They put stuff up, I delete it. I never get tired of this.<BR/><BR/>As to who one would choose to restore House Stark, well, Martin doesn't generally go in for happy endings, so I'll be surprised if House Stark comes out at all well in the end. If they did, though, I can see fairly easy ways to make Jon Snow the new Lord Stark. Bastards have been legitimized and raised to a noble station before. <BR/><BR/>But it's not like dead people actually stay dead in this book. Maybe Robb will come back. I'd say 'maybe even Ned', but, well, he was beheaded, so it seems unlikely. Nothing's impossible, though.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138484203003622452006-01-28T16:36:00.000-05:002006-01-28T16:36:00.000-05:00And, yes, there was an anonymous comment underneat...<I> And, yes, there was an anonymous comment underneath Scott's pertinent query, which I've already dealt with on its own merits.</I><BR/><BR/>What merits? <BR/>Seriously, that reminded me of that guy (was it Gandalf, or anonymous?) who was giving you a hard time about falling for SuperGirlfriend and how you weren't being ''consistent" or some such nonsense. Same guy?<BR/><BR/><I> Petyr seems to be scheming to restore House Stark... kinda sorta. </I><BR/><BR/>I wouldn't have chosen Sansa to be the one to restore House Stark, that's for sure.<BR/><BR/><I> According to the Wikipedia entry I found on it, there are at least three more to come</I><BR/><BR/>Christ. I'll be a grandfather by the time it's done.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138481354534998662006-01-28T15:49:00.000-05:002006-01-28T15:49:00.000-05:00Scott,Oh, yeah, and your first question -- there's...Scott,<BR/><BR/>Oh, yeah, and your first question -- there's a little more on the Stark/Lannister feud in FEAST. Not a lot, but Petyr seems to be scheming to restore House Stark... kinda sorta.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138481274967182072006-01-28T15:47:00.000-05:002006-01-28T15:47:00.000-05:00According to the Wikipedia entry I found on it, th...According to the Wikipedia entry I found on it, there are at least three more to come -- A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, THE WINDS OF WINTER, and A TIME FOR WOLVES. <BR/><BR/>A general reminder to all: Anonymous commenters start on thin ice. You don't have to give your real name (God knows I don't, generally) but if you can't be bothered to have some kind of consistent identity from one comment to the next, well, you'd better be posting something awfully interesting, that contributes something positive to whatever discussion is going on. Mean spirited crap and ad hominem attacks out of nowhere will generally be deleted anyway; such nonsense posted anonymously will be trashed in a heartbeat as soona as I find it.<BR/><BR/>And, yes, there was an anonymous comment underneath Scott's pertinent query, which I've already dealt with on its own merits.Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138469909237614322006-01-28T12:38:00.000-05:002006-01-28T12:38:00.000-05:00Martin is writing at least three epic fantasies at...<I> Martin is writing at least three epic fantasies at once here. The Starks vs. the Lannisters is one of them, and the core of it, </I><BR/>Is it just me, or has this storyline been pretty much abandoned? Lord Tywin is dead, Joffrey is dead, Eddard and Robb are dead, Catelyn...well, I'm not sure what state she's in, Jon is Lord Commander on the wall, Bran is beyond the wall with Coldhands, and Rickon is not really even part of the narrative. Sansa seems destined to be abused by Littlefinger and Arya is heading toward Braavos. It looks as if Martin got bored with this story about halfway through SWORDS, and killed off everybody involved, and took the story off in another direction. <BR/>Maybe CROWS revives the feud, but I don't see how, since the major players are all dead. <BR/><BR/><I>we are aware that, given how many books are projected </I><BR/><BR/>How many books *are* projected, anyway?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138396692400060052006-01-27T16:18:00.000-05:002006-01-27T16:18:00.000-05:00As I'm at a far, far earlier spot in all this, I h...As I'm at a far, <I>far</I> earlier spot in all this, I haven't read the bulk of your post on this. <BR/><BR/> I know that I read and enjoyed <B>A Game of Thrones</B> around the time <B>A Clash of Kings</B> was released - I remember you mentioning being slightly envious that I was coming in at a point where I could finish one and have the next part available, having waited the full measure between installments. Heh. And that was when he was cranking them out at mere two-year intervals. At the moment I'm uncertain of whether or not I got to <B>Clash</B> -- but then, as is often the way with these things, it fell off my screens.<BR/><BR/> It was amusing, though, to realize how much came flooding back when you hit the first paragraph of your response to Scott, and touched on the core elements of each of the three tales being told. Obviously it was something I enjoyed overall, though at this remove some of the elements and most of the characters are blurring in memory.<BR/><BR/> Knowing that the story(ies) are unfolding at a relatively glacial pace, I'm content with my having put the considerable remainder (thusfar) of this off.<BR/><BR/> If nothing else, I doubt I'll be reading <B>Feast</B> until at least <B>A Dance of Dragons</B> is close at hand.Mike Nortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13025995292338904959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138385581322677852006-01-27T13:13:00.000-05:002006-01-27T13:13:00.000-05:00Scott,The problem, as I’ve analyzed it, is that Ma...Scott,<BR/><BR/>The problem, as I’ve analyzed it, is that Martin is writing at least three epic fantasies at once here. The Starks vs. the Lannisters is one of them, and the core of it, since Wikipedia indicates that the whole fantasy is based on the historical War of the Roses. To this central narrative, he’s tacked on Danni and her dragons, returning from across the sea to put the Dragonlords back on the throne of Westeros, which is a story worthy of its own epic, and then we add in all the supernatural stuff going on with the rise of the Undead and all that fascinating stuff happening up beyond the Wall.<BR/><BR/>Each of these stories would be massive on their own. By stirring them in together, Martin is creating a truly epic tapestry with thousands of strands. I don’t know if he’s good enough to pull it off satisfactorily; I do know that no mortal man can possibly type it all fast enough to satisfy us.<BR/><BR/>Baby,<BR/><BR/>Yeah, I’m bad about giving spoiler warnings. I just don’t think of it, especially if something has been out for a while. I should try to be more considerate.<BR/><BR/>As to my frustration, well, there are hundreds of thousands of us, and it’s not a new phenomena. People got just as frustrated back in Dickens’ time, waiting for the latest chapter of whatever potboiler he was working on. It’s just, then they were waiting a few months, while we are aware that, given how many books are projected and how long the author takes writing them, we are waiting for a decade or more.<BR/><BR/>Also, generally when a new chapter comes in a serial, the previous cliffhangers are resolved. Since Martin can’t get control of his own narrative, and he therefore made this appalling and disastrous decision to publish half of an installment instead of the whole thing, we’re now in the position of waiting, not just three years for the next installment, but eight years or so, for the installment after the next one, in which we will once more find out more about the characters in THIS installment.<BR/><BR/>It’s madness, and as far as I know, it’s unprecedented madness, but we’re stuck with it. <BR/><BR/>Still, for the most part, I am very very happy in my life, so don’t worry about it. ;)Doc Nebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052810933464744998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138376750103225732006-01-27T10:45:00.000-05:002006-01-27T10:45:00.000-05:00You should at least warn your readers that you hav...You should at least warn your readers that you have some spoilers in here. I'm glad you're enjoying (?) the book, but wish it wasn't frustrating you so.SuperWifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02856384425069616224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18829500.post-1138371339980886732006-01-27T09:15:00.000-05:002006-01-27T09:15:00.000-05:00Okay, I had to skim though this entry carefully, b...Okay, I had to skim though this entry carefully, because I'm just finishing up STORM OF SWORDS for the second time before picking up FEAST. All the same, since I'm currently immersed in this world, I did want to comment.<BR/><BR/><I>I get the very bad feeling that Martin himself has no idea what he's going to do with all these fascinating fictional people and plot threads. </I><BR/><BR/>I started to get that feeling about half way through CLASH OF KINGS - Martin simply has too many balls in the air, and I can't imagine that some of them won't get dropped. And yes, introducing a bunch of new characters (the Prophet, Brienne) isn't going to help. <BR/><BR/>I'm beginning to suspect that whatever conclusion this story eventually reaches (assuming Martin and I both live long enough to see its conclusion) I'm going to be disappointed. <BR/>I'm already not too happy with what's been done with Tyrion, for example, and I'd much rather have had that annoying twit Sansa killed rather than Robb, if one of the Starks had to die.<BR/>But I'm hooked, and I'll keep buying the damn books (probably in hardcover) as long as Martin keeps publishing them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com